AN: Ummmm??? HAPPY FREAKING 2018 EVERYONE!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE 800 FOLLOWERS AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS CHAPTER ALONG WITH THIS YEAR!!!

Nico (a few months later, after Hazel and Frank are at CJ. Percy was never traded out with Jason.)

Hazel talked me into going back to Camp Half-Blood. I told her I had been there once, she knew what happened. Haven't been back since. But she wanted me to go and try to make friends.

Maybe come to terms with my sexuality. I'm gay. And she doesn't know that. But I hear Camp Half-Blood is more open to that kind of stuff. So maybe it'll help.

So here I am. I expected Percy to come running up to me like a little kid, but he didn't. He wasn't even the first person I saw that I knew. Grover was. Annabeth was still a bitch. She told me where to find Percy, though.

Which was out by his cabin. He was behind his cabin, facing the ocean as he was smoking. Which was something I didn't expect out of Percy.

"You smoke?" His look had also changed quite a bit. More my style now. And of course, he didn't recognize me. Just gave me a weird look.

"Why do you care?" The son of Poseidon was a bit more blunt than I remembered. "I don't even know you. I'm not hooking you up, either."

"No, I just... kind of was the first thing I noticed." I explained, knowing that this was him. He's changed. "Sorry. I didn't cut you out as a smoker. I should probably tell you who I am."

"That or fuck off."

"Yeah," I responded and he finished off his cigarette, stomping it into the ground. "I'd rather not. Um... It's me, Nico? I don't know how well you remember, it was like 2½ years ago now that I left but..."

His eyes narrowed. He didn't seem very surprised. He looked like he might be high.

"I... Are you sure you're Nico?' the son of Poseidon asked me. "You're not just messing with me because I'm high?"

So he was smoking pot, got it.

"I didn't know you smoked pot until just now when you said you were high." I assured him it wasn't a joke. "So no, this isn't a joke. I'm here. I don't know for how long. But I'm here."

"Okay," Percy went on. "Why are you talking to me then? Of all people."

"Well we we're kind of friends." It was a shitty excuse, I'm well aware. "I um... Sorry about freaking out when it came to Bianca. I'm not mad anymore. I'm over it. So like, truce?"

I put my hand our expecting him to just shake it. But he looked at it for a second before giving me a high five.

"Truce." Percy agreed, and I realized I was slowly developing a crush on him. "Fair enough, your sister did just die. So what brings you back here?"

"Eh, I don't really know." Because to be honest, I don't know why I told Hazel I'd come here. "Curiosity, maybe? See how everyone's doing. Um... Yeah. I didn't realize you smoked anything."

"Probably because I didn't when you were around." He explained, letting me in his cabin through the back porch. "I didn't start until later. And eventually I'll quit. Probably when I run out. My dealer was mortal. So yeah. It just helps just the edge off. Kind of like self medicating."

"What edge?" I questioned. "The pressure to be perfect?"

"What? No." He corrected me right away, and I didn't know he didn't less anymore. "I dropped that shit a while ago. Just like home stuff. My mom's husband is a dick among other things. I don't lead here anymore. People don't like me that much."

"Oh, bullshit."

"I'm serious, Nico." He wasn't shitting me about this. Which is what surprised me. He was in charge anymore. "They don't give a shit about me. So I let them pick and they choose Annabeth. Fucking good for her. It's less shit I have to worry about. But enough about me. What have you been up to?"

"Well, you know," I started off, not really expecting anyone to care about where I've been or what I've done lately. "I've been around. If you get into major cities, most of them have places where they give food to the homeless for free or only a quarter. So I didn't starve. I met quite a few people. Some good, some not. Did a few jobs for my dad, brought a demigod to the other camp. Yeah."

"Other camp?" I figured that by now people would know. But maybe not. "The fuck you talking about, di Angelo?"

"The one in California," I explained to him. "A Roman camp, for the Romans Demigods. My dad told me to bring her there. She's the one that convinced to come back here."

"She did?" Percy asked, emphasizing the gender tagged there. "Oooh, did you get yourself a girlfriend while I was gone?"

"Wh... I... No?"

"You sound unsure."

"I didn't get a girlfriend." I was more stern about my decision. "Why do you care as it is?"

"I don't know, I like to know shit."

"I guess that's fair," I remarked as I noticed a speaker he had. "Can I play something?"

He handed me an iPod that didn't have a password. For music, I'm assuming. Told me to go for it.

I saw nothing I actually knew. So I just hit the shuffle button and was once again shocked. Percy was full of surprises.

He listens to heavy metal and rock.

"You listen to this shit?" I asked, surprised.

"It's not shit," Percy informed me, and that was only the start of a huge fight. It wasn't because of that. But I left there screaming fuck you, you don't deserve to have any friends. He pissed me the fuck off.

Percy

Man. It's like everywhere I go, people just don't want me. I go home, and my mom ignores me. I go to my dad's, and he lets me stay for the night before sending me here. I come here, I'm here for two days, and it's pretty clear nobody wants me here.

After another hour or so, I lit up another joint and started to look at the photos I kept here. There weren't many of them, just the older ones.

I found a photo of my first summer here. Back when I was... I guess I was okay. Gabe was fucking me up. But it was our group photo. Of my friends and me.

You know, back when I had friends.

My phone started to go off for the fifth time since I've left the house. It was probably my mom just asking me to come home.

I opened the text with the intent to not respond. I haven't in three days. Why start now? Only pay attention to your kid when he's gone. That's shitty parenting.

Mom 💙: Percy, please.
Mom 💙: Look, I get that you're not going to come home any time soon. But please just respond. If you don't, I'll send an IM or I'll go to the camp myself. You're still my son. You can't walk out like that. Between the music, the attitude, and now this, I can see you fading away, Percy. And I need my baby boy there.
Mom 💙: Please.
Mom 💙: Paul said he'll try harder.
Mom 💙: You should, too.
Mom 💙: But you need to come home.

She kept sending more and more texts like this, frustrating me. I don't want to hurt my mother, but she doesn't seem very hurt. She just missed me. But big whoop, I'm gone every summer anyways.

Exhaling, I looked at the photo of my old friends. Grabbing my metal bucket I use as a garbage, I took my lighter from my pocket and froze for a moment before lighting it up.

These were my friends...

"No," I told my brain as my thumb went over the ignitor. "Don't think like that. They never cared about you. Not really."

I let the fire take over the picture as I dropped it into the garbage. It didn't burn anything else, it was the only thing in there.

Mom 💙: Percy, please. I'm worried, and it's been 3 days. I don't want to lose you.

Ten messages similar to that and I wrote her out a response.

Percy: You didn't lose me, Mom.

Mom 💙: Are you sure? You've been really distant lately and I hate to think that I've lost you. You're still my baby boy.

Percy: don't call me a baby

Mom 💙: you're always going to be my baby, though :'(

Percy: Mooooooooooom 😡

Mom 💙: But seriously, Percy. At least come and get your stuff if you're not going to come home for good.

Percy: whatever.